Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 signed the Environmental Management and Protection Bill into law, expressing optimism that it would go a long way to secure the public health safety of residents most especially children.
Governor Ambode, who spoke shortly after signing the Environmental Management and Protection Bill into law at the Lagos House in Ikeja, said that administration, on assumption of office, saw the need to address the gap in sanitation of residents and the State.
He said it was alarming to see that dysentery and other pandemics were on the rise with serious implications for the State’s public health expenditure. He added that the government thought it wise to tackle the root cause of the problem rather than spend excessively on treating preventable hygiene based diseases’ [read more]
Lagos Government Environmental Bill is Unfair to Residents – United Nations Expert
The United Nations Reporter on human rights to water and sanitation Léo Heller has however faulted this bill. He said the Lagos state government plans to arrest, prosecute and fine ordinary Lagos residents seeking water is too harsh.
Léo Heller criticised the state government for failing to provide adequate access to drinking water, and then criminalising or imposing fines for fetching water from lakes, rivers, or any other natural sources.
Heller said even though the law is a good one to regulate water borne disease, but more than 90 per cent of Lagos residents lack water pipeline’ [read more]
River Ethiope, One of World’s Cleanest River– UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has identified the River Ethiope in Delta State, Nigeria as one of the cleanest in the world.
Dr Matthew Dore, the National Coordinator of the agency’s Biodiversity Conservation Programme, made this observation during a visit to the source of the river at Umuaja, Okoku Kingdom in Ukwuani Local Government Area of Delta State.
“We have come today to see the source of the river Ethiope. The River Ethiope is reputed to be the cleanest river in the whole world,” he said’ [read more]
Federal Government Plan Africa’s First Sovereign Green Bond
Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday, February 23, 2017 said that the Federal Government was making arrangements to inaugurate the first African Sovereign Green Bond to address climate change and environmental projects.
Osinbajo said this at the Green Bonds Capital Market and Investors Conference organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Debt Management Office (DMO) at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) office in Lagos.
Green Bonds are debt instruments tied to environmental projects to address climate change.
Osinbajo, described the initiative as a new addition to the market funding portfolio. He stated that the proceeds would be used to fight climate change. He also said that the initiative would provide an opportunity to deepen the capital market as well as tackle poverty’ [read more]
Fears for Environment as Automatic Legal ‘Cost Cap’ Scrapped
New rules have come into force which could dramatically reduce the ability of individuals and non-governmental organisations to bring legal challenges to protect the environment.
The government is scrapping automatic “cost caps” which limit the costs of losing a case in England and Wales.
Cost cap requires contracting parties to ensure that the legal action to protect the environment is “fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive”.
Opponents claim the changes will make it “impossible” to “hold the government to account”.
But the government says people will not be expected to pay above their means.
The caps currently stand at £5,000 for an individual and £10,000 for an organisation.
Under the changes, any person or organisation wanting to bring a judicial review in environmental cases will not automatically receive the protection of a ‘”cost cap” if they lose’ [read more]